Last weekend, Laurie Halse Anderson attended the American Library Association’s annual meeting, where she spoke at the Freedom to Read Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebration. “Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance” and “the poison of democracy,” she said at the Washington, D.C., event, according to tweets by the American Libraries Association Magazine. It’s a topic she’s addressed since her debut young adult novel, Speak, came out 20 years ago. loans-cash.netSpeak tells the story of Melinda, who was raped at a party the summer before she starts high school. The book stands at No. 60 on the ALA’s Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. In 2010, a…
Author: Renée K. Gadoua
The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham and evangelical lightning rod, opened his Thursday, May 30, Central New York appearance explaining that he called for a national day of prayer for the president of the United States because “the Bible commands us to pray for those in authority.” Amid applause he said, “This is not an endorsement.” President Donald Trump faces unprecedented “attacks,” Graham said, repeating what he told the Syracuse New Times in an earlier telephone interview. “The president needs to be focused on solving our problems,” he said. “Congress needs to be focused on…
Evangelist Franklin Graham visited Central New York Thursday, May 30, the last stop on his Decision America Northeast Tour. He spoke to Renée K. Gadoua, Syracuse New Times contributing writer, Tuesday, May 28, while traveling from Rhode Island to Bridgeport, Connecticut. Here are excerpts of that interview, edited for clarity and length. How do you think the tour going? Better than I thought. The venues have been packed. In Portsmouth, they turned away hundreds of people. People have been very responsive to the preaching of the Gospel. I think people are searching and people are hungry. The problems we face…
Paul and Ellen Bernhardt sang in the choir at Billy Graham’s weeklong Syracuse Crusade in 1989. Now they’re looking forward to hearing Graham’s son, Franklin Graham, preach at Decision America Northeast Tour on Thursday, May 30, at the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview. “People remember when Billy Graham was here,” said Bernhardt, a volunteer with The Gathering Place at North Syracuse Baptist Church. “People are looking for hope. They need hope. We’re in a tough area as far as jobs. God offers hope.” The Syracuse-area event will be the last of seven stops in Graham’s Northeast Tour. “Join Franklin Graham in praying for your community, our country and the lost,”…
At 89, Oren Lyons acknowledges he’s slowing down. A recent back operation “took me off the dance floor and off the lacrosse field,” the Onondaga Nation faithkeeper and internationally renowned advocate for indigenous rights and environmental stewardship said. For decades Lyons has acted as the world’s conscience — or scold, depending on your perspective — advocating an ethic of peace, equality and respect for the world’s resources. He grew up on the Onondaga Nation, where he, his brothers and friends spent entire days running among the trees. “The whole territory was our playground,” he recalled. “There was a lot of open land. There were big fields of corn and…
The tour was one of more than two dozen nationwide that started last month as a program of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
Five-year-old Jaeleen Mouillesseaux brought up the rear of the Syracuse Women’s March on Saturday, Jan. 19. Wearing a green T-shirt that read “This Little Feminist Has Big Dreams” over her winter coat, Jaeleen carried a small stuffed animal and skipped along the snowy sidewalks. Her mother, Shannon Mouillesseaux, wore the words “Death to the Patriarchy” across her chest and held her daughter’s hand as they walked from the Everson Museum of Art Plaza on Harrison Street to University United Methodist Church, 1085 E. Genesee St. The Syracuse duo were among about 500 people who walked several blocks to a rally at the church as similar marches took…
Rep. Claudia Tenney won her first congressional term in 2016 just 5 percent ahead of her Democratic opponent Kim Myers. Amid a closely watched contest punctuated with bitter personal and partisan jabs, a recent poll put the 22nd Congressional District’s Republican incumbent 1 percent behind Democrat Anthony Brindisi. Nine percent of voters are undecided, according to a Spectrum News/Syracuse.com/Siena College poll released Oct. 24. “This is a district that is as closely divided as it can be about whether or not to re-elect its freshman Republican representative,” Steve Greenberg, a spokesman for the Siena College Research Institute, said in a…
Is it “Goodbye, Columbus” for Syracuse? Mayor hosts dialogue circles around Columbus Day, given the historical figure’s controversial history.`
After President Trump challenged the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow interfered with the 2016 election during a news conference after the Helsinki Summit, pundits argued whether it’s appropriate to apply the words “treason” and “traitor” to the 45th POTUS. About 120 people at the Syracuse Confront Corruption vigil on Wednesday, July 18, seemed to have no qualms about that language. “Nyet my president,” read a handmade sign one participant carried at the James M. Hanley Federal Building. The Syracuse candlelight vigil was among about 150 nationwide to challenge conflicts of interest, ethics violations and the abuse of government offices…
In welcoming Kathy Kelly to a sympathetic audience Monday, July 16, the Rev. Fred Daley described the peace activist as a source of hope during “such a critical moment in our nation.” Kelly’s speech came hours after President Trump stunned much of the world by exonerating Russia from meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and amid nationwide outrage over immigration policies that have resulted in separating more than 3,000 children from their families. Kelly’s calls for justice suggest that “light will eventually overcome dark, that good will eventually overcome evil,” Daley said. Kelly, who has spoken numerous times in Syracuse, began with a quote by Pope Francis: “Indifference kills.” The pope recently made the comment and…
Sarah Hudson, a family doctor in Rochester, carried her 1-year-old son on her back; she tucked a sign reading “Babies Need Mommies” into the wrap that held her baby. Nearby, her older sons, 3-year-old Isaac and 5-year-old Gus, hoisted signs that read “Don’t Cage Kids.” “As a parent I cannot believe what our country is doing to families,” Hudson said. “As a physician, I am appalled by what is happening.” Family separations that result from the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policies reflect a “warped sense of justice,” she said. The Hudsons joined about 500 people Saturday, June 30, at Syracuse’s…
Renée Vogelsang sees plenty of reasons for discouragement at the Trump administration’s environmental record. Fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt has sought to roll back a slew of rules governing clean air and water and fighting climate change. “At a time that federal government leaders are deniers of climate change, it’s critical we’re taking action at the local level,” said Vogelsang, an organizer for the Saturday, May 19, Climate Solutions Summit. The daylong event at Fowler High School brings together local and state organizations to share philosophical and practical strategies and resources to address climate…
The Central New York Friends of NRA event typically draws about 200 people, most of whom are NRA members.
Liverpool High School sophomore Jackie Neal says she’s sometimes nervous to go to school. “People think it’s funny to make school shooter jokes,” she said. “Now you don’t know if it’s real.” Neal was among at least 1,000 people at the March For Our Lives Syracuse rally on Saturday, March 24. Up to twice as many people marched from the Everson Museum of Art to the James M. Hanley Federal Building Plaza beginning at noon. The local march was among more than 450 marches across the country, organized by teens too young to buy beer or vote, but outraged by…